questionable christianity

the first weekend in february i was blessed to be a part of "revo weekend" at first baptist church in lewisville. i've never worked with a church that is absolutely willing to do anything to get you what you might need. they are a dream to work with.

i always come away from speaking engagements refreshed, feeling like my spirit has been charged -- ready for the next round. it would be amazing to teach weekly, daily even. being able to teach this weekend caused the flame of God's Word to expand past the borders of containment. i feel like the prophet Jeremiah when he says, "his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot."

it reminded me and encouraged me to pursue my passion. my passion lies in teaching the seeker. God has laid a calling on my heart for the church. it is the believer that i am called to. i am called to help those who seek God go deeper, to a point where the pressure weighs heavy on their ears and they can feel the presence of God through His Word. i desire to be the tool that God uses to push people out of their comfort zone and into the immeasurable abyss known as the mystery of God. my hope is that i can teach God's Word in a fresh way; drenched in historical context so that believers might better understand scripture. if we can look past our americanized mindsets and look to the root of scripture we can live differently and perhaps, just perhaps, the church would begin to live a faith from the heart rather than the mind.

in all of this refueled passion a question has begun to resurface. a question that God asked me a couple of months ago and i've been wrestling with off and on. this question, rising back to the forefront of my mind is this:

why do teachers of God's Word shy away from the hard questions in scripture? or if they do address them, they water down the answer in what seems to be an attempt to help the common church-goer believe and understand?

i was reminded of this on the last night of revo. a young girl, we'll call her "seeker" because she is just that, walked up to me during worship and asked, "why is Jesus 'the guy'?" i could tell right away that the standard "sunday school" answer wasn't going to work for her nor did i want to regurgitate what i learned in third grade sunday school. i long for the look that was in her eyes to be in the eyes of all believers. it penetrated me past my mind and into my soul. it was a look of question, concern, love, and deep rooted searching. so, for a good 30 minutes we talked about God, the old testament, abraham, religion, the church, sacrifices, buddhism, hinduism, the tao, and finally we got to a point where we were ready to get to Jesus and His life, love, existence, sacrifice, and resurrection. it was quite possibly the most beautiful conversation about God that i've had in a while. the reason why it was so amazing -- because i could tell that the church answers aren't working anymore and i had the opportunity to dive into all of the things that God has been teaching me in life, through His Word, through history, and most importantly through the Holy Spirit.

it excites me that the generations to come aren't immediately accepting the simple church answers anymore.

this actually scares the crap out of me as well, because if the church isn't ready to start hitting the issues with explanations based outside of our cultural mindset as well as being willing to dive deeper, the church could die...

whew...

just reading those words and hearing them in my head cause great concern. i'm concerned because i'm not sure the majority of pastors want to face the difficult questions. but the passion of the seeker, overshadows my concern.

so, are we, as teachers of God's Word, teaching as Christ did? (when i say teachers i'm speaking of the men and women who stand in front of a body of people and proclaim the Word of God.)

all throughout the Gospels Jesus teaches to people of all walks of life. He teaches to the widow (mark 12), the rich (luke 19), the spiritual leaders of the day (luke 4), the adulteress (john 8), the broken(mark 9), the unloved(matthew 8), the poor(matthew 15), the hypocrite (matthew 23), the emotional believer (luke 7), the ego driven (luke 9), the users(), the crippled (mark 2), the people you hate (matthew 22), the outcast (luke 5), the politicians (luke 18), those with power (luke 7), and many more that aren't recorded in scripture. What stands out most to me isn't that He taught to all of these different classifications of people but rather the way in which He taught them. w hat stands out is that He never shied away from how deep He went in His teachings.

His teachings were always applicable to the listener. if he was talking to the Jews He quoted scripture that they would know, if he was talking to the poor, the fisherman, the farmer He told them stories that they could identify with. so, His style and illustrations were different due to the listener, but the depth at which He was asking the people to go was not. it was consistently far beyond a comfortable walk. He asked them to search their hearts and then change. He expects change. He always wanted the people to see past themselves and live a life that was completely selfless.

in order to live a life that embodies the Gospel, we must dive deeper into scripture than the standard sunday morning message and apply scripture to our lives, rather than applying our situations and culture to interpret scripture.

we have the knowledge of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and countless other things to do with church, but it is becoming increasingly evident that we don't KNOW any of them. we have the "head knowledge" but no "heart knowledge". heart knowledge produces actions and is based out of love unlike head knowledge that produces complacency and is based out of repetition. when you know the story about the woman at the well, but you still gossip, you really don't Know. when you know the story of Christ healing a man with leprosy, but you never reach out to the outcast -- you really don't Know. when we can identify with the stories of scripture and the Words of Christ penetrate our soul, we want to live differently. we will be like henry david thoreau going to live by walden pond in hopes of "living deliberately". the vast majority of the church has no desire to live deliberately for the Gospel of Christ. we like our complaceny. we love our "country club" atmosphere. it's comfortable and requires no change and when the pastor starts preaching change.... well, we usually don't like him either.

i no longer wonder why the pharisees wanted to get rid of Christ. Christ was preaching from the heart and He was asking everyone to change, including the people that were seen as "spiritual leaders". when we have pastors today that rise to the forefront of an american church and ask people to do things differently, church goers often don't like that particular man. but there are people who want to go deeper love what he is saying. usually it's the religious that don't want to change, because when you ask them to change it screws up their entire religious philosophy that has been working their entire life. the religious driven individual wants guidelines that are sure and certain, but what happens when those guidelines are questioned?

let's face it, most churches have decided to make scripture black and white. it reminds me of a couple of organizations that were present 2000 years ago. why does the church not teach the "grey" areas of scripture more thoroughly? or a better question is: why are we so scared to even think that scripture isn't black and white, much less teach such a thing? we are so afraid of the unknown. it seems like all we teach is being above reproach. this isn't a bad thing but it can turn into a bad thing when it has been taught as long it has as "the only way to live". it evolves into the prison system it has and it causes people to hate the church because it immediately is seen as "judgment" not love. when all we do is ask people to repent and believe, then life is joyful, we aren't doing the gospels justice. it's like the church has become an overprotective parent, sheltering their kids so much that once they get out into the world the kids either go insane and do everything or they make them "twice as much a son of hell as you are" (matthew 23:15).

the fact is that religion can't change in the same way a heart can. a heart can move, adapt, learn, embrace. the heart welcomes structure, but it needs it to be flexible enough to bend. a heart can search -- religion can't. martin luther, john calvin and many others involved in the reformation knew how desperate the people were to get to the heart of things. religion looked more like a prison than freedom to them. they were desperate enough to do anything to free the people of religious bondage. luther wasn't afraid to preach scripture and not culture or doctrine. he wasn't afraid to stand up and call attention to what needed to change. he wasn't fearful of those who had power in the church. he didn't do it to show that he was right he did it out of love; a love that wants to direct people toward God. look at the interactions between Christ and the pharisees. Christ constantly pointed out what needed to be changed and where they had gone astray from the heart of God. was Christ harsh with the religious leaders, absolutely. it seemed that Christ held the religious leaders of His day to a higher standard. how could He not expect more out of them? these men who led the jewish people knew all there was to know about the scriptures but it appears they had lost their grip on who God was. these men lived and died by the words of men before them, not the word of God.

how many pastors live and die by their chosen denomination's doctrine?

have we come full circle back to relying on the church to guide us instead of our hearts?

are we courageous enough to stand up for the Word of God in the face of resistance from the modern church?

if we see something that might be skewed should we sit back and do nothing or stand and ask for change?

what happens when we choose to teach doctrine rather than teaching biblical truths in the manner they deserve (which is usually more in-depth and harder to explain)? has the church created a generation of christians that have shallow soil to sink their roots in? perhaps this is why many of the younger generations are walking away from the church, because their roots have hit the bottom of the pot. i think for the young "seeker" i mentioned earlier, this is just the case. the sunday school answers don't work anymore because they are weak, even though true, they lack any spiritual depth. the sunday school answers are fantastic for our foundation but lack the depth in which we can stretch ourselves. they are spiritually shallow and when a person sets their roots in only them it doesn't take long for their roots to reach the bottom, especially if they've asked God to search their heart.

when we aren't challenged to think and forage, we fail to see the importance in such a venture.

most sunday morning messages seem to be a glance at the basic foundations of christianity coupled with an encouraging push.

what would happen if we taught messages that were built off of the foundations, stretching us to think differently paired with a time of meditation?

maybe, call me crazy, but maybe we would begin to raise up a generation of believers that desire to search God for themselves, as well as challenge them to live out their faith by action instead of gospel tracks.

most christians want to only go to the edge of the cliff and look over. there isn't an increasing desire to jump off the cliff into the unkown in pursuit of a different, more radical life with Christ. jumping off the cliff takes a faith-filled heart and a reckless mind.

when you go to the edge and you're contemplating taking the next step off....

you begin to realize just how big of a step it is;

it's permanent,

it's life changing,

it is the most frightening and most beautiful thing you will ever do,

but it takes a bit of madness to do it.

stepping into a "journey with Christ" is something that the casual sunday christian can't do. it's not that the casual christian doesn't want to jump because they see people around them doing it and it looks phenomenal, but as all the fluff boil off we see what's left....

an unwillingness to jump.

these believers who run toward the edge and leap off the cliff are the ones who have died to themselves and want nothing to ever be the same. they want their lives changed. the difference between the cliff-jumper and the casual christian is the cliff jumper embraces what Paul describes as being crucified with Christ (Gal 2, Rom 6, Col 2).

the cliff-jumper knows that when a believer chooses this more radical way of living,

everything will change.

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ashy foreheads

this was my blog from one year ago. it's good to look back and see what God was doing in your life as well as what came of it. good reading.



40 DAYS SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD


February 21, marks the start of a grand journey for me this year. It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For many of us we don't really know, or care to know, what Lent is all about. I used to assume it was a Catholic tradition that had no relevance to us today (coming from my Baptist background). Each year Lent seemed to pass unnoticed.

As God began to lay the subject of Lent on my heart around a year ago, I began to study Lent, Ash Wednesday and the meaning behind the ritual. What I've learned is that Lent is deeply rooted in Christian history. Lent is a time for us to prepare ourselves for Easter. Because Easter is the celebration of the risen Christ, the empty tomb. Easter is the celebration of OUR HOPE. These 40 days of lent (not including Sundays) are a time for us to not just "give" something up, but rather offer something to God. It's a time of reflection and repentance. What do we need to give up to Christ? What do we struggle with? What within our souls do we need to surrender to God?

I have a phrase written on the outside of my pocket Bible that says, "He Stinketh".

It is a reference to Martha telling Jesus that Lazarus is going to reek of a stench of decaying flesh in John 11. It reminds me to look within myself and see what decisions I've made that have caused me to die spiritually. Where in my life do I stink?

So, I ask you: what in your life is causing you to die and reek of dead flesh?

What will you give up this lent out of repentance and conviction? The ashes that are placed on the foreheads of christians represent the ashes that were so common in the old testament during times of mourning, as in Job 2 and Jonah 3. But we must search further back to the law and Moses (Leviticus). The Israelites would offer burnt offerings for penitence of sins. They would burn a bull as a sacrifice for the sins of the Israelite people to God. They would then take the ashes from that burnt offering and pour them out, outside of the camp. Why is this significant?

Where was Christ Crucified? Outside the city walls of Jerusalem; outside the camp.
How was His sacrifice seen? As a sin offering to God for the sins of the people.

Christ was poured out as a sin offering to God. If we hold Galatians 2:20 to heart and we die to Christ, will we put ourselves on the altar and sacrifice ourselves to God? Will we say to God, "I am serious about life with you. All I want is to see your face. You are what I long for. You are the reason the wolf howls and creation growns. I am homesick for you. When will I dine at your banquet table?"

What will we give up this Lent season and express to God how much we need and want to commune with Him?

This is what I challenge you to do: Begin praying, daily, that God would reveal to you what you need to give to Him and that you will be faithful to hear Him. Whether He asks you to fast from TV or Sugar or Cokes, or Food, or perhaps it is an addiction that gets you into trouble everytime you do it, perhaps its smoking, perhaps its sleeping in, what ever it may be, please be attentive to His voice and don't be afraid. Because if you do pray for this, God will tell you. He won't shy away. He wants to go deeper with you.

And please do this with someone else. Make sure you have a close believer that is sharing in the battle to give up something. It doesn't have to be the same thing, but do it in communion with other believers so that you can do it as one body. We can't go through this life alone thinking that our walk is singular. We walk with the Trinity, which walks with every believer, so therefore, we do this together as one movement.

From 1884 to 1994 in Korea 30,000 churches were founded. That is 300 per year for 100 years. That is almost one a day. The Koreans hold intercessory prayer so dear that over 20,000 of its members have completed a 40 day fast from food while often times living in the mountains, bathing all thoughts in prayer. What if the church in America took fasting and prayer this seriously?

Will this be another year of mediocrity or the beginning of intense battle and searching for the heart of God at all cost? Are we Homesick? How serious are we?

Peace be with you,

.:rustinklafka

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